I’m telling you, it’s a fine way to roast a chicken. The skin right at the neck opening was charred, but that was a result of me failing to have the oven rack low enough (you want it in the bottom or next to the bottom slot). Even burned, it was wonderfully tasty, and the rest of the skin just defied description.

Lurking in the back there is a mashed potato gratin with caramelized onions and grated parmigiano, topped with breadcrumbs. I nuked potatos, grated them (wanted to keep a little texture, failed in that attempt), and mixed them with cheese, onions and some cream. Served it with cumin-coriander carrots. Good stuff.

Friday night was experimentation time. I had chicken breast tenderloins, bought on sale at Kroger. Mixed some pesto with some cream cheese (had bought ricotta, couldn’t find it, decided I’d left it in the cart, so subbed cream cheese); pounded the tenderloins flat; spooned some pesto cheese and spread it around; then rolled ’em up. Dredged them in flour, dipped in egg/milk mixture, coated in panko, and baked them for about 30 minutes at 400. Nice and crispy, tangy from the pesto, creamy from the cheese. Would have been pretty perfect with a little marinara drizzled across them, but on of my house guests has gastro issues with tomatos (poor thing), so I took pity on her.

Served it with asparagus, very simply roasted with olive oil, sprinkled with grated parm when it came out of the oven, and then drizzled with homemade — yes, boys and girls, HOMEMADE — Hollandaise sauce! Which was so tremendously easily I may be putting Hollandaise sauce on everything from here on out.

Of course, it was a Bittmanh recipe, and, y’know, Bittman. He’s never steered me wrong.

3 egg yolks

2 tsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp salt

1 stick butter, melted

Whip the yolks, lemon juice, and salt in the blender until it’s nice and thick. Melt the butter in the microwave. Pour it into the blender while the blender’s running, in a thin stream. Thin it with a little more lemon, if you wish.

It’s definitely a “sweet Baby Jesus” moment when you dredge your roasted asparagus spear through a puddle of that and devour it.

Oh, and there was orzo, cooked in chicken broth, with a little garlic and shallot sauteed in olive oil. A little bland, but not bad; I’ll add some cracked pepper next time.

Child C loved the chicken rollups and requested I do more of them to go in the fridge that she could take for lunch to work. Houseguests A&B were fond of the chicken, but loved the asparagus, and one of ’em went back for seconds on the orzo. So I guess it was a success.

I also believe you could do full filets like that, creating a larger rollup; bake it a little longer, and slice it, then later the slices with a slice of fresh tomato and a slice of fresh mozzarella for a really cool-looking (and tasting!) lunch entree salad.

Easter menu: Ham (natch). Got a John Morell Spiral Sliced nine-pounder that’ll be headed in the oven shortly. Potato salad, because, well, potato salad. May go back to the store and get more asparagus (and make more Hollandaise). Have angel food cake CCRB’s grandmother made, so I think I’ll get strawberries and make some creme fraiche to go over it. Deviled eggs. That ought to about do it, except I’m gonna make a batch or two of cheddar bacon muffins for the week’s breakfasts, too.